Watergate figure Charles Colson has died at 80

WASHINGTON - Charles Colson, the tough-as-nails special counsel to President Richard Nixon who went to prison for his role in a Watergate-related case and became a Christian evangelical helping inmates, has died. He was 80.

Colson's death was confirmed by Jim Liske, the chief executive of the Lansdowne, Va.-based Prison Fellowship Ministries that Colson founded. Liske said the preliminary cause of death is complications from brain surgery Colson had at the end of March.

Text Size

Colson, with his trademark horn-rimmed glasses, was known as the "evil genius" of the Nixon administration who once said he'd walk over his grandmother to get the president elected to a second term.

"I shudder to think of what I'd been if I had not gone to prison," Colson said in 1993. "Lying on the rotten floor of a cell, you know it's not prosperity or pleasure that's important, but the maturing of the soul."

The Washington Post described him in 1972 as "one of the most powerful presidential aides, variously described as a troubleshooter and as a 'master of dirty tricks.'"

He helped run the Committee to Re-elect the President when it set up an effort to gather intelligence on the Democratic Party. The arrest of CREEP's security director, James W. McCord, and four other men burglarizing the Democratic National Committee offices in 1972 set off the scandal that led to Nixon's resignation in August 1974.

But it was actions that preceded the actual Watergate break-in that resulted in Colson's criminal conviction. Colson pleaded guilty to efforts to discredit Pentagon analyst Daniel Ellsberg. It was Ellsberg who had leaked the secret Defense Department study of Vietnam that became known as the Pentagon Papers.

The efforts to discredit Ellsberg included use of Nixon's plumbers - a covert group established to investigate White House leaks - in 1971 to break into the office of Ellsberg's psychiatrist to look for information that could discredit Ellsberg's anti-war efforts.

The Ellsberg burglary was revealed during the course of the Watergate investigation and became an element in the ongoing scandal. Colson pleaded guilty in 1974 to obstruction of justice in connection with attempts to discredit Ellsberg, though charges were dropped that Colson actually played a role in the burglary of Ellsberg's psychiatrist's office. Charges related to the actual Watergate burglary and cover-up were also dropped. He served seven months in prison.

Before Colson went to prison he became a born-again Christian, but critics said his post-scandal redemption was a ploy to get his sentence reduced. The Boston Globe wrote in 1973, "If Mr. Colson can repent of his sins, there just has to be hope for everyone."

Ellsberg, for his part, said in an interview that Colson never apologized to him and did not respond to several efforts Ellsberg made over the years to get in touch with him. Ellsberg said he still believes that Colson's guilty plea was not a matter of contrition so much as an effort to head off even more serious allegations that Colson had sought to hire thugs to administer a beating against Ellsberg - an allegation that Colson states in his book was believed by prosecutors despite his denial.

"I have no reason to doubt his evangelism," Ellsberg said of Colson. "But I don't think he felt any kind of regret" for what he had done, except remorse that he had been ineffective and got caught.

Colson stayed with his faith and went on to win praise - including the prestigious Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion - for his efforts to use it to help others. Colson later called going to prison a "great blessing."

Since Politco refuses to ask for civility whenever a Republican or Conservative dies, I will. Please try to keep your comments civil. It is inappropriate to make bad remarks about someone who has died. Keep in mind this man has a family that loves him.

mwlm--you may believe Chuck Colson received redemption after prison for what he did as one of Nixon's hatchet men. After all, he was just doing what so many other dirt bags do: "turning to the lord."

If you and Chuck believe that, fine--but for most of the rest of us, it's good riddance to one of the slimiest characters of the Nixon age.

How about TOOKIE WILLIAMS who was honored as a great man by some people because he wrote a book. They even made a movie about him titled Redemtion. I love reading these posts because it reminds that the liberal mindset is truely flawed. Redemtion comes from the saving grace of the Lord and not from liberal hysteria. I don't know Tookie WILLIAMS heart, maybe he accepted the saving grace, that is not for me to judge. I hope he did, but if he didn't that is his problem.

FIG NEWT - LIKE all dead DEM COMMIES.....TED KENNEDY is making excellent wormfood and fertilizer now that he has been recycled to actually serve a useful purpose to the earth . KEEP up the good work of DYING....DEMS.

Colson while paying his debt to society, found Jesus and turned his life around for himself and others. However, the crime which landed him in prison was serious enough to cause President Nixon to resign in shame.

I always thought his "conversion" was a fraud, and I still do. The guy was always a creep -- despite any good he may have provided to others. God can even use a creep for good purposes. But, he's still a creep.

Colson masterminded many of the treasonous acts of the entire Nixon administration.

They weren't very good at it either.

This wasn't accepted partisain politics like gerrymandering .

This was TREASON!

They all made a willful decision to sabotage Democracy, IN OUR DEMOCRACY.

They did it for years in 3rd world countries.

The leaders of the Republican Party decided sabotaging our democratic elected representative govornment. By WE THe People, was a treasous act, that they could get away with. Because they were losing.

What's important to remember is. This is just one, in a long line of democracy sabotaging election activity, by the Republican party.

Voter surpression . Pruging minorities from voter lists, like Jeb Bush did in Florida in 2000, to get Dubya elected. Now the overwhelming of We The Peoples will, by the outside corporate funding, of propaganda by the conservative Roberts courts, Citizen United case. Now they won't let college kids vote were they live while going to college.

It's all about sabotaging one man, one vote. Now they do it in broad daylight.

Back then just two" good reporters took down these traitors.

Where are the long running investigative reports by the media mega-corps today????

Whats clear is.

A large slice of the GOP can't handle, living in a Democracy. Where you don't get to dictate your way to others. You see it in the NO COMPROMISING ...... Teabagger controlled Congress today.

Where they scream it's TYRANY !!!!!!!!! Because they lost to a black guy, from Harvard.

If Colson found God later. Fine.

We still have all these others, to deal with.

At least we sent the traitors to our country, to prison back then.

Now they get heart transplants, after issuing pardons to hacks who out our CIA networks!

While plotting more 3rd world election rigging tactics. Against OUR democracy.